Meet the New Chief Collaboration Officer. Creating partnerships with other C-suite members.

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

For 25 years, CarMax has blended the virtual with the physical. Car shoppers research the models they’re interested in on the website or app, then come into the nearest dealership, take the car for a spin, sign the papers and drive away.

This hybrid business model has helped CarMax become the top used car dealer in the country, selling more than 720,000 vehicles and generating $17.2 billion in revenue last year.

This smooth-running click-and-mortar machine wouldn’t be possible without a strong partnership between marketing and technology, says CarMax CMO Jim Lyski. As a result, Lyski and CIO Shamim Mohammad have become the Click and Clack of corporate collaboration.

“If you’re going to do digital transformation, you have to be technically native,” says Lyski, who joined CarMax in 2014 after stints in the healthcare, insurance and fertilizer industries. “Being joined at the hip with our CIO allows both of us to understand technically what’s going to be required, from the database architecture through the marketing stack.”